Now in spring and the Mountains look good. Signs of lockdowns easing and some tentative returns to a more"normal" life. We will be patient and continue supporting those in our community feeling isolated and uncertain.
We continue to meet online and expect to continue this way for all of October. We even had an online cooking get-together this month as we slowly progress our community Cookbook. We have attracted some top speakers again this month including Jenny Boyall from Katoomba High School and Mary Brell OAM, talking about her community service in Nepal.
Even in lockdown I am always impressed how Rotary works together looking after our community. There is always something happening. In October we will be supporting two events. Lift The Lidon Mental Health, an initiative of Australian Rotary Health, with a High Tea on Zoom (see details below). Also October is the month to raise funds for Rotary's Global signature project End Polio Now. We are so close to ending Polio it's not funny.
Please call/text me if you would like to be involved. It's rewarding to participate.
To call Ms. Boyall, a “ball of fire”, would be similar to calling albert Einstein “a smart fella.” We don’t believe it would be an overstatement to say that since 2013, when she assumed her current responsibilities, she has energized not only her students, her teaching team, but also the community at large. We can truthfully say that her charisma penetrated even the coldness of the Zoom technology that Covid restrictions forces The Club to employ. In her tenure as Principal, she has positioned the student as the centre of the school and the focus of their teaching efforts. She told us that she has a motto that serves as her guiding force: We Do It Together.
Ms. Boyall started as Principal at Katoomba High in 2013 when the school had only 520 students. Now in 2021 there are 970, with "an increasing number of students moving into their senior years and completing their HSC", she said. Ms. Boyall has the energy of three nuclear reactors going full tilt. She has the vision, smarts, gumption, and the determination to change the lives of every single one of her students. I am sure that we all wish we had had a Principal such as Jenny when we were in High School. How different some of our lives might have been. How many mistakes could have been avoided. How much further we could have gone.
The educational world has taken notice of her accomplishments. recently being awarded one of only three Harvard Principal Scholarships in Australia for 2021.
Once COVID restrictions ease and she is able to travel to the United States, she will participate in a professional education leadership program, valued at $16,000, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
We can only say that if there were a Nobel Prize awarded for practitioners of secondary education, Ms. Boyall would be on everyone’s short list.
Well done, Jenny. You have certainly made The Blue Mountains proud of you.
Ms. Boyall is equal parts "thrilled" and "humbled" after recently being awarded one of only three Harvard Principal Scholarships in Australia for 2021.
Once COVID restrictions ease and she is able to travel to the United States, she will participate in a professional education leadership program, valued at $16,000, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "It is recognition for the work we have all done, in making Katoomba High the school of choice in the Upper Blue Mountains. It is a great example of what can be achieved when parents, students and community work together in genuine partnership," she said.
The scholarship will start next year with a trip to the oldest institution of higher learning in America and also one of the most prestigious in the world - Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
As someone who knows Boston very well, our parting words to her were simple and to the point: you must have the clam chowder. As New York is famous for its hot dogs and Paris for steak au poivre, Boston is world-renowned for its thick cream-based soup overflowing with freshly shucked local clams, leeks, potatoes, onions and special herbs and spices.
Our young make up 20% of our population. They also make up 100% of our future. Let us give them Peace as our centenary gift from Rotary. The Peace Pole program had its beginnings in 1955. You can now see Peace Poles in close to 200 countries and more than 200,000 have been placed around the World. Our aim is to distribute 100 Peace Poles for 100 years of Rotary sponsored by 100 Rotary Clubs, with each pole will be numbered 1 to 100.Peace Poles are planted with the Universal Peace Message “May Peace Prevail on Earth”. They symbolise our common wish for a World at Peace. They stand as a silent vigil for peace reminding us to think and act in the spirit of Peace. The Peace message is written in four languages one panel on each side of the Peace Pole. The Rotary Clubs in the Upper Mountains have now installed Peace Poles at Mt Vic, Blackheath, Katoomba and Lithgow.
Mary Brell, and a locked-down Nepalese colleague, Prakash, shared with the Club the amazing work that they have been doing for more than a decade in a rural and remote area of Nepal.
Mary is a long time member of the Orange Club and professionally she heads a regional training and education consultancy based in Orange and has been to Nepal 15 times on behalf of Rotary.
Prakash, himself, has an interesting story to tell. He came to Sydney to attend a conference in March 2020 right before the government stopped all international flights. His return flight was cancelled and he has been exploring our country in the interim. As he put it, he knows more local highways and byways than any Club member and he offered up his services as our local tour guide—at mate’s rates, of course.
Mary’s work in Nepal was in part funded by Rotary Australia World Community Service Ltd (RAWCS). RAWCS works in harmony with the Rotary Foundation delivering humanitarian aid through the Australian regional network of Rotarians, Clubs and Districts. RAWCS was incorporated in 1987 and in the last 12 months RAWCS has processed AUD$ 32M in donations. RAWCS is not an emergency response organization, but rather looks to engage in sustainable, developmental or relief projects. Our own Club member, Phill, has worked under the RAWCS umbrella in a number of projects in various South Sea countries.
Nepal, geographically is “sandwiched” between India and China which makes geopolitics a bit of a “tightrope” and a balancing act. Mary was invited by the Club in Wahroonga initially to fly over with them the first time in 2011. The targeted village was in the Maidi-Dadhing Province,
a six hour journey by Land Rover over unpaved roads from the airport.
Over a period of a decade, Mary continued to return, each year with a different focus supported by various specialists. These are the general areas that she was able to offer
help to the villagers:
Teacher training
Mental health
Doctors and dentists
Improved hygiene for women
Scholarships
Rotary tour groups
“Dream Cricket”
By 2019, Mary had started a number of agricultural projects to improve farming techniques in Nepal.
We are happy to report that Mary was also awarded the Order of Australia medal for her service to the community in 2017, principally for her work in Nepal.
Mary Brell, you are an outstanding Rotarian for putting service above self. Thank you.
Although October 10, 2021 is the official HAT DAY, where you can lift your lid to help fight mental illness, we're celebrating it on Saturday 16th October. at 3:00pm. In fact we will be having a High Tea on Zoom (all things are possible on Zoom apparently).
1 in 5 Aussies are affected by a mental illness every year, but it’s not something we tend to talk about. These illnesses include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, dementia, schizophrenia and many more. This is why it's so important that we Lift the Lid on Mental Illness by funding mental health research.
At our High Tea, not only will we wear our silly hats, we will share our prepared afternoon desserts and cakes, supporting Hat Day. Please join us on Zoom and you will be making a difference by helping to raise funds for important research focussing on early intervention and prevention of mental illness in young people aged 12-25.
Covid restrictions of the day may allow small groups to assemble in homes.
To make a tax-deductible donation go to Australian Rotary Health. You can nominate an amount that suits your circumstances.
For more up to date information, particularly with changes to Covid restrictions, please go to www.bluemountainsrotary.org
Our face to face breakfast meetings are at The Robyn Yates Centre for Cancer Wellness Support. We will still have some ZOOM meetings. Check Calendar for details.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Due to COVID, we have reinstated ZOOM meetings as our default for July and August. As always it is dependent on current COVID rules.
Our normal home is the Robyn Yates Cancer Wellness Support Centre, 105 Railway Parade, Leura, NSW, 2780.
